Vampires of the Sun (2 page)

San Marcos is a small, fairly unknown town that only existed due to the university it held. The university was known for being primarily a party school and in the heat of the summer, students floating down the Brazos River with coolers of beer was a common sight to see. The only other claim to fame was the shopping. On the southern side of town existed a large outlet shopping center filled with visitors from all over Texas as well as Northern Mexico. Everywhere in town, the vision of student life was present.

Norah’s destination was the old town square, a mix of older buildings with the hippie persuasion of style. The store fronts were filled with headshops, record stores, boutique shopping, and even a cigar store. The eateries were filled with normal college fair like pizza parlors and cheap Chinese food. Parking was hard to grab even during the day when most students were disinclined to park there for fear of being towed but there was a spot right in front of The Coffee Pot, her final destination. The Coffee Pot was a popular study place for the college crowd. For minimal money, students could get a steaming hot coffee with a variety of syrup flavoring. Norah’s favorite was the Mayan Mocha; a mix of espresso, cinnamon, and hot chocolate. Not super keen on coffee, it was one of the few coffee drinks she liked.

After ordering, Norah headed over to the window seat she, and pretty much everyone else, preferred. It was rare to find it available for the taking and she knew she’d get dirty looks if she sat in there alone but she couldn’t be bothered to take a normal cushioned seat on one of the couches or wooden chairs. She sat on the floor in the small square room propped up against pillows and the only solid wall against her back so she could look out onto the street through the glass. The wrought-iron lighting fixture with a blue bulb gave the room a magical glow as it bounced off the wall and played with the light that filtered through the glass from the outside lamp light. Never having been to Morocco, she imagined that this slice of solitude was what any number of coffee shops in Rabat would look like.

Maria, the girl whose job it was to make the coffee served up the sugary treat to Norah’s table with a smile. While Norah wasn’t on familiar terms with Maria, the two definitely recognized each other from their previous interactions. Norah could count on Maria to make her drink well while some of the other staff could not. Norah felt a strange connection to Maria. She wasn’t a friend. They never spoke to each other. But at the same time, when she saw Maria, she had a strange feeling she was a little less alone in the world. That was the reason she liked The Coffee Pot so much deep down. It was comfortable and homey.

Outside, students passed by the window, unseen by Norah as she gazed out deep in thought. They entered and exited from the few bars in town, laughing merrily as alcohol flooded their bloodstream and made them do goofy things. Smaller crowds huddled on all of the different street corners, smoking and chatting. It was looking to be a busy night on the town without the fear of midterms or finals looming in the air. Norah wasn’t sure if she gazed at them in longing and jealousy or out of pure curiosity. Maybe it was an all-of-the-above type answer.

A flurry of motion caught Norah’s eye as she saw a piece of black fabric wave high in the strong winds that had begun. She watched as a group of three young adults moved into view, passing under a lamp post that lit up each of their faces as they walked in a triangular formation. They look to be her own age or maybe a bit older. The trick to telling someone’s age was all in the eyes which she couldn’t see all that well. She was fascinated with their fashion which was very similar to her own. She’d hear it called Strega before but she thought of it more like a demonic, sexy look. The girl in the front right had dyed hair in fire-engine red and a long, flowing black dress. Around her neck was a long scarf that rippled in the wind which had caught Norah’s attention first. On the left at the girls side and leaning in close as he chatted with her, was a boy with dreadlocks and black skinny jeans and a black shirt under a black, light-weight, long jacket. The pair almost completely blocked the guy who followed right behind them in equally dark clothing.

Once Norah laid her chocolate brown eyes on the guy in the back of their small group, she wondered how she hadn’t seen him first. His skin was tanned, unlike her own. It showed off his Hispanic heritage. His face was beautifully framed by chin-length, curly, brownish-black hair that matched her own hair color. Accenting a naturally arched and carefully plucked eyebrow was a piercing with jewelry that matched his lip ring in gunpowder silver.

Norah never identified herself as something as simple as Gothic or Strega. There were plenty of other terms to describe similar fashions but none of them struck Norah’s fancy. Maybe it was the youth in her but she didn’t want to identify as any one thing when she was a multi-faceted human being with many interests and talents. But either way, she felt as if she identified with these people whom she had never met whether they self-identified as some sub-culture or not. She wanted to know them.

Glancing downwards as the three passed by her window, she noticed they stopped walking from her peripherals. With a quick look up, trying desperately to hide her staring, Norah looked into the face of the boy she felt the most drawn towards. He was the only one looking her way but he looked away quickly when he noticed she saw him looking. The other two were looking at the shop sign and discussing something she couldn’t hear through the glass. It must have been a decision on whether or not to get coffee because a moment later, they were entering the store and getting in line at the counter, taking the stares from the clean-cut students in good stride.

Norah refused to pay them any further attention, at least not with her eyes. What was it about herself that refused to be an outgoing person? Drawing her knees up tight into her chest, she dug her face into the book she’d brought in with her to read in humiliation at her lack of action. The words from the page loomed up at her, “I obscenity in the milk of thy tiredness,” Augustin said.” Many people claimed that For Whom the Bell Tolls was a piece of literary artwork but half-way through, Norah had to disagree. Knowing that she could never write anything as good didn’t stop her from making an opinion on the slow-paced book made of old words no longer used in modern society. She hoped the second-half would pick up and that Robert Jordan would manage to get the damn bridge blown like he kept talking about needing to do. She wasn’t being forced to read the book in school but she had set the task of reading all the great classics to herself. So far she’d done a terrible job only having read a half-dozen at best, despite the large stack filling the bookshelves in the condo. She refused to give up on it, not one to quit halfway when it came to books.

Half-expecting and half-hoping the trio would come join her in her room with the extra space available around the small table, Norah felt slight disappointment at them and at herself for hoping when they didn’t. They took their coffees to go and Norah finished up the eighteenth chapter before deciding that sitting in a coffee shop wasn’t what she needed. Reading would only take her mind off the problems at hand and she had to decide what she wanted to do with her future. She needed to figure out what she could do or what she would even want to do whether it was a choice of which subject to study or a future job she wanted. There had to be something out there for her.

Stepping out onto the streets, she was greeted with a cool breeze. The heat of the day had left completely and a feeling of excitement and adventure was left in its wake. The feeling was like knowing it was autumn and Halloween was just around the corner. Norah wished it was the fall. The summer months meant green growth and golden wheat colors filling the landscape. It got boring quickly as everything looked too dry. Fall was for artists. The fall was her favorite season. She loved how red the trees got with orange and brown splattered in between. The crispy air when she could see her breath in the form of mist would always leave Norah giddy for no reason other than a happiness to be alive with such a beautiful landscape.

With excitement in the air, Norah didn’t feel like driving back to Austin yet so she took up moving her feet towards the university. She passed eclectic shops filled with re-sale and vintage clothes and the kooky bookstore that sold action figures and sci-fi novels she could never pass up if she was there when it was open. It was rare to leave empty-handed. One particular building she passed left her smelling cherries and mint shishah on the wind as the road steadily slopped upwards as she made her way on campus. The route to the quad past the student parking garage and the eight story student living complexes was familiar and Norah’s feet travelled there on autopilot while her head was filled with thought.

The university quad was a long stretch of gravel cement with a tree in the exact middle where an intersection formed a cross. In front of the tree was a statue of Lyndon B. Johnson. He sat proudly in his cast-iron mold, his hands tucked into his waistcoat as he peered out over approaching students. Typically students could be seen playing hackie sack, smoking, talking, and even playing hide-and-go-seek any night of the week. Texas State University had an active student life that wasn’t opposed to being on campus for long hours into the night. Tonight it was dead and silent without a single student body present. An eerie shiver struck Norah’s back and she decided against trying to find a hang-out spot. She walked the length of the quad to the farthest she could go to the balcony that looked out over the river. She could see the newly built stadium in the distance. Norah left the quad and headed down the opposite side of the hill she’d come up from, towards the waterfall on the river so she could take that walking path through the park back to her car. She’d seen students there when she’d come into town and hoped they were still out trying to play Frisbee golf under the street lights or having a beer while watching the fireflies.

Passing between the agricultural department’s greenhouses and the science department’s fisheries, the lack of lighting worried Norah. It was dark and she clearly remembered there being lights here before from other late night wanderings. Norah wasn’t the type to go thrill-seeking by walking through the dark and thinking she was immune to danger. She preferred to play it safe so she could live to see another day.

The night itself was dark. The moon and stars were hidden in the sky by clouds. Glancing around for street lights, a flash of broken glass on the ground caught her attention. It looked like someone had smashed out all of the lights intentionally.

The only thought in Norah’s head as she walked at brisk pace away from the enclosed and shady area was that this could be the perfect setting for a horror movie. She began to wonder if this is what it was like to be that lone female presence that wandered in the dark with a fear of the unknown following behind to keep her on her toes. She giggled at how silly her brain was reacting, creeping herself out more when the giggle came out strange and high-pitched. When the sound of another giggle, deeper and manlier, echoed back at her, Norah stopped in her tracks with dread and disbelief taking over.

Not bothering to call out to see who was there when it was obvious someone was sitting in the dark and making fun of her, Norah took off in a run, trying to get to the lights of the park she could make out in the distance and the people she hoped were there. She didn’t hear anyone behind her as she ran and when she turned, slowly her run down to a jog, she didn’t see anyone either. Before she turned her head forwards and put her eyes on the ground so she could see where she was going, Norah ran straight into another body. It was solid and felt cool to the touch and like it belonged to a human much larger than herself.

              Gasping and apologizing profusely, Norah looked up into the familiar face of a boy. He was one of the members of the trio she’d seen earlier at the coffee shop and he had a strange looking smile on his face. Although he was smiling, it didn’t reach his eyes which shimmered unnaturally in the dark. “It’s no problem. I should have watched where I was going too.” He replied with a gravelly voice that made her take a step back. Looking at him closer, he looked strange, like the skin around his neck was too tight and the frame made of bone had been stuffed into a body that wasn’t his. Popping her head sideways as she studied him, he noticed her strange glances and gave her a strange glance himself.

              “Dawn, can’t you smell it? She’s already marked.” A pleasant feminine voice came floating out of the darkness. From behind one of the plastic sheets that made up one of the greenhouse walls stepped the attractive red haired girl from earlier. Following closely behind her was the other boy, the boy who drew Norah’s attentions the most. “The scent seems to be from one of the elders, although I’m not sure which one. You’re bound to get slaughtered if you play cat and mouse with her.” The pleasant voice belonging to the girl was riddled with an accent Norah couldn’t place. It sounded like a fake Hollywood Russian accent to her ears.

              “No fair. What’s she doing here then? There aren’t any elders in San Marcos. There aren’t any others besides us either.” The boy called Dawn reached up to touch Norah’s hair but she danced out of reach, skirting passed him and weirded out by his entire demeanor. “Come on and play with me little Rabbit.” He laughed before imitating her giggle from earlier. When Norah glanced at the other boy, a faint hint of disgust flashed in his expression. Both the other boy and the girl followed her eyes but they missed seeing it and Norah gave the boy a questioning look that he didn’t return. He seemed to be ignoring her completely.